Thursday, February 22, 2007

Marking a first, Tata Motors has crept past Hyundai Motor India Ltd in domestic car sales in January to gain the coveted second slot in the Indian car market.

According to the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers, Tata Motors, whose range included the Indica hatchback, the Indigo sedan and the Marina station wagon, sold 17,673 units in January, which was marginally above Hyundai's total sales of 17,452 units.

The Tatas sold over 14,466 Indica cars, which was slightly lower than the sales of 14,592 units of the Santro hatchback in January.

However, Tata Motors gained in sales of midsized Indigo and Marina, clocking 3,207 units in January, against Hyundai's mid-sized car sales of 2,860 (this includes the Accent, Verna, Elantra and Sonata).

Analysts say the growing preference for diesel cars and better performance of Tata cars in particular has helped the company, whereas Hyundai has been unable to launch new models and suffered some production issues.

"Hyundai is upgrading capacity and will be able to ramp up production for domestic sales by the last quarter this year," said Huzaifa Suratwala of Emkay Share and Stock Brokers.

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Citigroup Inc.'s property unit said it raised $1.29 billion for its first fund to invest in real estate and related assets in the Asia-Pacific region, with a focus on China and India.

Citigroup, the largest U.S. bank, and its investment professionals committed $200 million to the fund, CPI Capital Partners Asia Pacific LP, according to a statement from the New York-based bank. The fund will be managed by a Hong Kong-based team of more than 25 employees led by managing director David Schaefer. About 40 percent of the fund has been invested or pledged already.

Fund managers are trying to profit from fast-growing economies in Asia and capture more fee income from managing assets on behalf of pension funds seeking the annual returns of 10 percent or more that funds such as Citigroup's are designed to provide. Since the beginning of 2006, U.S. managers have raised more than $5 billion to invest in Asian real estate, according to Private Equity Intelligence Ltd. in London.

``Asia is a compelling market for private equity real estate investments,'' said Joseph Azrack, 59, president and chief executive officer of Citigroup Property Investors, in a statement.

Property Investment

Azrack, who came to Citigroup in 2004 from Boston-based AEW Capital Management LP, is expanding real estate offerings as Wall Street banks and buyout firms raise record funds for global property investment. Morgan Stanley is raising $8 billion for what would be the largest real estate fund of its kind and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. also is forming a new real estate fund. Blackstone Group LP, which bought Equity Office Properties Trust earlier this month in the largest-ever leveraged buyout, plans to raise about $10 billion for a new real estate fund this year.

Azrack's division oversees more than $9.8 billion and invests in publicly traded and closely held securities in a variety of asset types, including office, industrial, apartments, retail and hotels.

Citigroup also announced yesterday that it plans to raise $3.5 billion for a fund to invest in companies in emerging markets such as India, China, Estonia and Chile.

Citigroup will commit $1 billion to the fund, called Citigroup Venture Capital International Growth Partnership II LP, and expects to raise the rest from employees and clients, according to a marketing brochure.

In December, Citigroup Property Investors said it raised $2.1 billion for its first high-return real estate funds, one for Europe and the other for North America.

Citigroup Property Investors is part of Citigroup Alternative Investments, one of the bank's four main business divisions. Besides Hong Kong and New York, the property unit has offices in Shanghai, London and Los Angeles and a presence in Mumbai.

Saturday, February 10, 2007

The country’s largest upstream company, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), today signed an agreement with the largest gas company in the world Gazprom, of Russia, to extend their co-operation in exploration projects in India and Russia and other countries.

In a move that is likely to boost India’s chances of picking up stakes in various oil and gas blocks in Russia, the gas major has invited the participation of the country’s oil major in eight projects in far east Russia and Eastern Siberia, ONGC said in a statement.

India is keen on bidding for a minimum 20 per cent stake in the Sakhalin 3 project in far east Russia. “ONGC, in turn, has extended an invitation to Gazprom for participation in integrated petrochemicals, LNG and power projects in the country,” the statement said.

ONGC Videsh, the overseas investment arm of ONGC, is interested in bringing its share of gas from the Sakhalin 1 fields in the form of LNG.

The company, which holds 20 per cent in Sakhalin 1, is reported to be in talks with Shell for using the latter’s liquefaction plant under Sakhalin 2. Gazprom owns 25 per cent stake in Sakhalin 2.

ONGC and Gazprom have signed a memorandum of understanding for technical and scientific co-operation in underground coal gassification, coal bed methane and laying and operating pipelines all over the world.

India had earlier invited Russia to participate in its downstream sector, especially in refineries. “We would like the names of Russian companies to feature in the list of global entities interested in our downstream sector,” a senior official in the petroleum ministry said.

Earlier, Gazprom had also shown interest in the Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline. The pipeline, delayed owing to geopolitical tangles and gas pricing issues with Iran, is expected to move ahead with the Indian government saying a deal would be signed by June.

ONGC had also signed an agreement with Rosneft, another Russian company, for cooperation all along the hydrocarbon chain.

In a phase where India stock market witnessed its fastest and biggest gain(Mad Bull),Sugar sector witnessed massive slump. Sugar has become one haunted sector where investors are scared even to look at.let me remind this sector used to be flavour of market , Traders & Investors used to swear on sugar sector performance.I myself know many investors who are invested in sugar and yes at high rates and they kept averaging it which eventually compounded the trouble as there was no revival in sugar sector stock prices(example averageing can be suicidal at times)all the sugar stocks are trading below there 52 week low and still they are not showing any resistance to fall.READ MORE ABOUT SUGAR FALL Sugar may witness corrective phase.

In short sugar sector in BEAR GRIP (a phase in market where stock prices fall and keep falling slowly which frustrates investors).It will be a long long way to recovery if at all things turn in sugar industry favour as every rise will attract selling from the ones struck in it for long time they will try to be the first to get relieved from the agony of holding a loss making stock for a long time, and this process continues till sellers get exhausted after that only we can witness fresh virgin upmove in sugar.check out the charts to see the deep ridges in sugar stock prices.

NOTE:-I myself was stuck in sugar but was brave enough to book loss in it :-) and yes quite relieved now after watching the outcome.

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